This morning, I was alerted by the Atlanta Journal Constitution (reg. req’d) that a Georgia State University astronomy program on Mt. Wilson, in California, had imaged the surface of Altair, a sun-sized star that is one of the brightest in the northern sky. This is cool because it’s the first time a star this size has been seen this way.
However, accompanying this article was this image. It was very early when I read the news, so it didn’t ping my bullshit detectors, although the sheer amount of detail really should have been a tip-off. It wasn’t until I ended up at the National Science Foundation website that I noticed the caption that should have accompanied the image.
An artist’s rendition of Altair
What’s a little detail like that, between friends?
Regardless, this is excellent astronomy and great science. I could not find the actual image that goes along with the press releases. Hopefully that will pop up into the public domain soon.
The images can be had two links from your press releases link above.
press releases –> University of Michigan Press Release –> Scroll Down to Supporting Images
A direct link to a comparison of the ‘actual image’ and a computer model is here:
http://www.astro.lsa.umich.edu/~monnier/Local/Altair_files/PR_image5.jpg
I still question that “actual image” it seems to have way too many pixels across the width of the star.